Why do swimwear and activewear belong in one chapter?
A coat is named by its shape. A swimsuit is named by how much skin it covers and how the piece is put together, and a legging or a sports top is named partly by a property you cannot see at all: what the fabric does under stress. Both categories share that same shift away from silhouette and toward function, which is why they sit together here rather than beside the dresses or the knitwear chapter.
Coverage first, then construction, then the fabric technology words that only apply to these two categories. That order matches how a swim or activewear retailer actually writes a product title.
What are the coverage levels on a swim bottom?
Coverage is the first field on almost every swim bottom listing, and it describes how much of the hip and leg is left bare rather than the garment's shape.
- Full coverage. The leg opening sits close to the hip crease with minimal skin showing below the waistband.
- Cheeky. The leg opening cuts higher, leaving part of the lower buttock uncovered. More coverage than a thong, less than full.
- High-cut. The leg opening curves up higher on the hip, lengthening the visible leg line. This describes the leg opening specifically and can appear on a full, cheeky or high-waisted bottom alike.
- High-waisted. The waistband sits at or above the navel rather than at the hip. This is a waist measurement, not a leg measurement, so a bottom can be high-waisted and full coverage, or high-waisted and cheeky, at the same time.
Because coverage and waist height are two separate measurements on the same garment, naming both is what actually narrows a search. "High-waisted cheeky bikini bottom" describes one specific garment. Either word alone describes a whole shelf of them.
How is the piece constructed?
Construction is the second field, and it answers a simpler question: how many pieces is this, and are they connected.
- One-piece. Full fabric coverage from chest to hip, no gaps, one connected garment.
- Bikini. Two separate pieces, a top and a bottom, usually sold and sized independently.
- Tankini. A tank-style top reaching at least to the waist, paired with a separate bikini bottom. More coverage than a bikini top, still two pieces.
- Monokini. A one-piece with fabric removed at the sides or the middle, leaving the waist or ribs bare while remaining one connected garment rather than two.
Monokini is the one people search wrong most often, because it looks like a two-piece in a photo. The tell is whether the top and bottom halves are joined by any fabric at all, even a thin strip at the side. If they are joined, however narrow the connection, it is a monokini and not a bikini.
What support features show up in a swim or sports top?
Support is where swimwear and sports tops share vocabulary with underwear, and it is worth reading carefully because the words are specific.
- Underwire. A rigid curved band sewn into the fabric beneath each cup, visible in a photo as a firm line under the bust that does not flex when the fabric around it does.
- Molded cup. A pre-shaped cup that holds a rounded form on its own, even off the body. It looks structured and domed even when nobody is wearing it.
- Shelf bra. A band of firmer fabric or elastic sewn across the inside at the bust line, giving light support with no separate cup shape. It lies flat until worn.
- Removable padding. Soft inserts in a pocket behind the fabric that can be taken out. Not visible from the outside at all, so this is a feature to check on the listing rather than something to search for from a photo.
Underwire and molded cups both read well in a photo, since both create a visible structured shape at the bust even under a fitted fabric. Shelf bras and removable padding are close to invisible from the outside, which is worth knowing before spending time trying to identify either from an image.
What do activewear's fabric-tech words actually mean?
None of the words in this section describe what a garment looks like. All of them describe what it does, and none of them can be read from a photo. They come from the product listing or the garment's own tag, and they matter enough to activewear shopping that leaving them out of a search often returns the wrong kind of product entirely.
- Compression. The fabric applies steady, even pressure against the muscle, which is why compression leggings and tops fit noticeably tighter than a regular legging in the same size.
- Moisture-wicking. The fabric moves sweat from the skin to its outer surface so it evaporates faster, instead of soaking in and staying damp against the body.
- Four-way stretch. The fabric stretches and recovers in both directions, lengthwise and widthwise, rather than only one. This is the standard for fitted leggings because it moves with a bending knee or hip in any direction.
- Two-way stretch. The fabric gives in one direction only. Common on looser activewear where full range of motion in every direction matters less.
Adding one of these words to a search changes the result set more than any colour or silhouette word does, because it filters by a property the fabric was engineered for rather than by how the garment looks in a photo.
Why does compression sizing break the usual sizing logic?
Every other chapter in this guide treats sizing as something to check on the retailer's page rather than something the photo answers. Compression garments need a note of their own, because the sizing logic itself is different, not just the number.
A compression legging or top is designed to fit tighter than a regular garment in the same labeled size, because the tight fit against the muscle is what produces the compression effect in the first place. Buying a true compression piece in your usual legging size, going by past experience with non-compression leggings, often produces a garment that is uncomfortably tight rather than supportive.
The fix is to check the brand's own compression size chart against actual body measurements, waist, hip and inseam, rather than against the size you wear in a different brand or a different category of activewear. A medium compression legging from one brand and a medium ordinary legging from another can differ enough to matter, since the two labels are solving different problems.
How do you turn a photo of a swimsuit into a search?
A screenshot of someone in a black swimsuit. The waistband sits above the navel. The leg opening curves high on the hip, showing more leg than a standard cut. The top and bottom halves are joined by a narrow strip of fabric at each side, with bare skin showing between them at the waist. There is a visible structured shape at the bust that holds even where the fabric is not being pulled.
Waist: above the navel, so high-waisted. Leg: curving high on the hip, so high-cut. Construction: joined at the sides with skin showing at the waist, so a monokini rather than a two-piece bikini. Support: a structured bust shape independent of the surrounding fabric, so a molded cup.
The phrase is black high-waisted high-cut monokini with molded cups. Monokini is the word worth keeping even if the first search returns little, since dropping it back to bikini will return a different, two-piece garment.
How do you turn a photo of an activewear piece into a search?
A screenshot of someone in grey leggings. The fabric sits close against the leg with no visible looseness anywhere, including behind the knee where a regular legging usually shows some give. A small tag at the waistband reads "graduated compression."
Fit: uniformly tight with no slack at any joint, consistent with compression rather than a standard fitted legging. Confirmed by the tag, which is the only reliable way to confirm it, since a tight photo alone can also just mean a smaller size than usual.
The phrase is grey graduated compression leggings. Add moisture-wicking only if that is also stated on the tag or caption, since it is not something the photo itself can tell you.
What can a photo never tell you in this category?
Fabric technology is the honest limit here, more than in almost any other chapter. Compression level, moisture-wicking treatment, UPF sun protection and chlorine resistance are all real, commonly listed properties that leave no visible trace on the garment at all. Two leggings can look identical in a photo and differ on every one of those properties.
Padding is the other blind spot. Whether a swim top's support comes from removable pads, sewn-in foam, or nothing at all usually cannot be told from the outside, since all three can sit under the same smooth fabric. When any of this matters to you, treat the photo as the shape and the listing as the truth, and check the second before buying on the first.
What does Snagfit return for these two categories?
Snagfit sorts a swimsuit into Dress, Top or Bottom depending on its cut, and it treats activewear the same way it treats any other top or legging, returning a shoppable name, the main colour and a short note on cut or material.
Construction and coverage, meaning one-piece versus bikini versus tankini, and how much of the leg or waist is covered, are its stronger reads, since those are large visible shapes in a typical photo. Fabric technology is outside what any image-based tool can see, compression, moisture-wicking and stretch direction all leave zero visual signature, so those words are always worth adding yourself once you know which ones matter for the piece you want.
Necklines and cutouts on a swimsuit read the same way they do on any other garment, and the necklines chapter covers that vocabulary in full.